June 2016 Newsletter

Mysterious  Musings

Greetings. I haven't posted for awhile but I did send out a newsletter.  Thought I'd post it here.  

Mysterious Musings

Patricia H. Rushford, Author, Newsletter: June 2016

Unbelievable!

I have recently released a new book and in updating my website, I realized it had been two years since I worked on it. Two years. I am so remiss. What have I been doing? Funny you should ask.

I started a book, Deadly Deception about two years ago and have occasionally typed in a few words. I have also taken up my past love of painting. Of course, I'm still quilting and cooking up healthy -- well mostly healthy foods.

Okay, so about the new book.

Deadly Deception is premiering on Amazon Kindle Edition.

In it...Carolyn Hudson, finds herself in a compromising position when she awakens in a hotel room in a pool of blood. The dead man lying next to her is acclaimed politician, Adam Burke, who had, only a week earlier, commissioned her to paint his portrait. She has no idea how she got there. She only knows that she was drugged and soon learns she is the killer’s next victim. Carolyn must go into hiding and accept police protection. Still, nothing can prevent her from investigating on her own and clearing her name, even if it kills her.

Some History

Fans often want to know the who, what, when, where and how of a book. Deadly Deception started about three years ago as a premise for a class on writing mysteries at the OCW summer conference. As with many of my mysteries, I begin with a character. In this case it was an artist who awakens in a pool of blood. From there I determined a victim, someone famous. The ideas banged around in my head and I eventually decided to make it a romantic suspense. It took me a long time to write this book. I loved working on it, creating the romantic interest, a police detective who struggled between remaining objective and finding his beautiful suspect too hard to resist.

What took so long? A few years ago, I was writing two to three books a year--under contract with various publishers. Writing under contract can be very stressful. An author not only worries about getting a book in on time, he or she must work on all the elements of promotion and sales.

I was also struggling with some health issues. When my doctor told me I had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition, I decided I needed to change a few things in my life. One was to stop pushing myself with contracts. A good thing and a not so good thing.

Without contracts, the amount of writing one does and the times slotted to write fall directly on the writer. And I am the master at procrastination. So I began not writing. At least not very much. The ideas kept flowing and from time to time, I took the writing seriously. I did manage to write a prequel to the Helen Bradley Mysteries, Death on Arrival, and to rewrite my very first young adult novel, Kristen's Choice, but Carolyn's story languished. I came up with a lot of ideas for books, but struggled to finish them. Sooo.. I am really excited to have completed Deadly Deception and I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

Other Publishing News I'm also excited to share the good news about the Jennie McGrady Mysteries. They are all updated, newly packaged and available as audio and e-books. In the Meantime Working on novels is something I enjoy. But I also love being an artist. I turned my dining room into an art and sewing studio. And I have taken up oil painting again. I've taken some classes on the Bob Ross style of landscaping from my sister-in-law, Ann and am having a ball. Here's one of my newest paintings. I'm hoping to sell some paintings eventually and am working on a web page featuring my art work. I've taken up art quilting as well and in addition to making quilts for family and charity.

Back at the Ranch As many of you know, my daughter, Caryl and her husband Ben run a non-profit organization called Stable Days. They rescue horses and mentor kids and are swamped from dawn til dusk. They now have two properties, the second being a ten acre farm with an arena where they can board horses and give lessons. The ranch is into so much more than horses as they are taking on gardens and bees and sheep, chickens, donkey's and much more. Please check out there website for all there updates. (The photo here is Maddie, loving the tree in the front yard at the ranch.) My Time at the Ranch Every year I try to visit my family at the ranch and this spring I was able to stay for a month. Wonderful!!! I got to hang out with my great grandchildren and especially enjoyed seeing and bonding with our newest, Carlisle Bennington Lester, Jonny and AJ's baby boy. What a doll. Andrea, Maddie, Olivia, Adalia and my soon to be great granddaughter, Eve, and I spent quality time on art work, sewing projects and fetching eggs from the hen house.  In addition to catching the family up on laundry I had the privilege of cooking meals and working in the greenhouse. So much work and such a pleasure. Another Wedding

More excitement at the ranch. Hanna and Adam are getting married. This means we get another great grandchild--Adam's daughter, Eve. A delightful little girl with whom I'm already in love . This also means another trip to the ranch in September. Yea!!!

So much life and so little time. Please check out my newly updated website at [www.patriciarushfordbooks.com] As always thanks for your prayers and support. Blessings to all. Pat Patricia H. Rushford